Renting your driveway out to electric cars could net you £4,500 a year windfall

Owners of the parking spot and plug can review profiles of prospective customers and set their own rates but it's expected to be between £2 and £4 to cover electricity costs plus a fee for parking - a further £3 using current driveway parking figures.

With one charge to full expected to last a few hours, having two bookings a day would rake in an average £12 day and almost £4,500 a year.

Where parking comes at a higher premium like London, income could rocket to nearer £7,000.

The installation cost of a home charging point is around £1,000, although this is grant-funded if you're buying a plug-in car at the same time.

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Nearly 100,000 plug-in cars are on UK roads and by 2027 it's expected 1.3 million EVs will be registered each year yet the number of available plug-in locations - especially outside of major cities - is much less.

Chargie, which officially launches on 16 May, is currently seeking chargepoint owners to register with the service. If an owner registers their own charging point, the service fee for using the system is halved.

Once it's up-and-running, an app is in the pipeline to allow users to find a free spot on the go while an international roll-out is expected to follow.

Husband and wife Jeremy Coulter and Jan Stannard, from Maidenhead, Kent, founded Chargie and said: "We want Chargie to help make electric cars the dominant form of transport in the UK, not just for short local runs, which is how many electric cars are currently used.

"For that to happen you need to be able to go a distance and know for sure that you can charge at the other end. At the moment, that's simply not possible. Other than major cities and motorway service stations, most areas of the UK still have no meaningful charging infrastructure.

"Chargie will rely on the goodwill and kindness of fellow EV owners towards each other, and we think there is exactly that spirit out there."